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Exhibit Booth at BCCE Conference and free MW buttons

Just got back from the Biennial Conference on Chemical Education (BCCE 2012), where I participated in a symposium titled “Web-Based Resources for Chemical Education.” About 60 people attended to learn about Molecular Workbench and other online tools and resources. One of the audience questions was about future availability of Molecular Workbench on the iPad and other tablets. […]

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Bungee Physics

Last week, Paul, Ed, and I did physics. This is such a rare event that it deserves note. We actually developed a theory, collected data, compared theory to data, came up with new ideas and tested them. We only wish kids everywhere could have the same experience. This investigation was prompted by Ewa Kedzierska’s presentation […]

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Energy2D V1.0 released!

The first stable version of Energy2D, an open-source and free heat transfer simulation tool made possible by funding from the National Science Foundation, is now available for download. The program can be installed as a desktop app, which can be used t…

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Reconnecting with Ton Ellermeijer at WCPE

I recently attended the modestly named World Conference on Physics Education in Istanbul. One of the highlights of the meeting was connecting with my old friend Ton Ellermeijer and meeting his colleague, André Heck. Some of the most innovative developments in educational technology have been made during the last 25 years at the AMSTEL Institute […]

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Thermostats in Energy2D

A thermostat is a controller that maintains a system’s temperature near a fixed point. The simplest thermostat does this by switching a heater or AC on and off to maintain the desired temperature (known as the bang-bang control). I spent a couple of da…

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Flexible textbooks

We’re in the midst of a remarkable transition in education – a change that will give teachers more flexibility in the resources they use in their classroom. The growing role of digital textbooks is gaining momentum. Major publishers are not just converting their textbooks to digital format, they’re also reconceptualizing them, adding a more diverse […]

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